1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a low calorie sweetener, diabetically safe substitute suitable for use as a sugar replacement, including use in activities such as baking, cooking and general sweetening of foods and beverages.
2. Description of Related Art
Sugar refers to a family of simple carbohydrates found naturally in fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy products. It is also added to foods as a sweetener or preservative. Added sugars and naturally occurring sugars are chemically identical. Common table sugar has been used for centuries for adding to foods to sweeten them. Common table sugar is a disaccharide called sucrose. A disaccharide is a sugar which, upon hydrolysis, yields two monosaccharide molecules. Sucrose consists of the sugars glucose and fructose. Glucose and fructose are monomeric sugars. Each has the chemical formula C(6)H(12)O(6). However, the molecules are arranged in slightly different ways. Glucose has a six-membered ring and fructose has a five-membered ring. Sucrose consists of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose joined together in a glycosidic linkage. The linkage is formed with the loss of one O and 2H, or more accurately, with the loss of a water molecule, H2O.
The use of low calorie sweeteners, such as intense or potent sweeteners, as a replacement for table sugar in a variety of food products is common in food and beverage formulations. For many consumers, however, products marketed as diet or light versions of products that are artificially sweetened are not preferred. Furthermore, the sugar substitutes that are currently on the market have unsatisfactory, look, feel and taste characteristics. Attempts have been made over the years to improve the taste delivery of these diet or light products and sugar substitutes. Besides sweetness, other health related and sensory characteristics of a food or beverage product, including the healthiness for a human being, effect on diabetics, flavor, mouthfeel and aftertaste of the product, affect the desirability of an artificial sweetener. Efforts have been made to add specific bulking agents to intense sweeteners in an attempt to improve the health benefits and the sensory delivery of sugar substitutes and to provide the same physical and aesthetic characteristics as sugar.
One of the sensory limitations of current sugar substitutes often expressed by consumers is the lack of proper look, density and mouthfeel that they deliver relative to their equivalents. The full calorie products are perceived as having a full taste and smooth mouthfeel. Diet products are often described as tasting artificial and having an unpleasant aftertaste.
Low-calorie potent sweeteners generally permit the development of diet or light products through an ability to elicit sufficient sweetness at a very low concentration of the sweetener, but they are generally unable to mimic other sensory characteristics of sucrose, particularly density, taste, mouthfeel and body. For example, the granularity of current sugar substitutes are completely different from common table sugar. In addition, artificial sweeteners to date have not been able to deliver the full, rounded, sweetness typical of sucrose. Accordingly, there is a continuing need to identify a low-calorie sweetener that provides both the sweetness characteristics of sucrose and other important sensory characteristics such as mouthfeel, flavor, aftertaste and visual characteristics.